Analysis of Quality of Life and Nutritional Status in Elderly Patients with Dysphagia in Order to Prevent Hospital Admissions in a COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

(1) Background: Oropharyngeal dysphagia (OD) is currently recognized as one of the geriatric syndromes due to its high frequency in older people and its associated complications, which have a direct impact on quality of life. The main objective is to determine the effectiveness of telehealth consultation for the re-evaluation of nutritional status and quality of life assessment in older people diagnosed with OD associated with active use of thickeners to prevent hospital admissions in a COVID-19 pandemic. (2) Methods: an observational, descriptive, and longitudinal study that included a sample of 33 subjects with age equal or superior to 65 years diagnosed with OD with conserved cognitive capacity. The nutritional status was evaluated through the Mini-Nutritional Assessment (MNA) questionnaire and biochemical parameters and, the quality of life was determined through the Swallowing Quality of Life (SWAL-QOL) questionnaire. (3) Results: Thirty-three older patients with OD were recruited (54.5% women), with a mean age of 83.5 ± 7.6 years. The main cause of OD in the study population was neurodegenerative disease (51.5%), followed by cerebrovascular disease (33.3%), and other causes (15.2%). Sixty point six percent of patients were found to be at risk of malnutrition. The MNA score was significantly correlated to albumin (r: 0.600, p < 0.001) and total proteins (r: 0.435, p = 0.015), but not to total cholesterol (r: −0.116, p = 0.534) or lymphocytes (r: −0.056, p = 0.758). The mean total score of the SWAL-QOL was 75.1 ± 16.4 points. (4) Conclusions: the quality of life of the subjects related to the use of a thickener is good. Although the body mass index (BMI) and average biochemical, nutritional parameters of the subjects are within the range of normality, the MNA has detected a high percentage of subjects with the risk of malnutrition, which suggests the need for continuous re-evaluation in these patients, demonstrating the viability of the telematic route in this research.